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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2019 Aug 21;7(8):e14668.
doi: 10.2196/14668.

The Elusive Path Toward Measuring Health Outcomes: Lessons Learned From a Pseudo-Randomized Controlled Trial of a Large-Scale Mobile Health Initiative

Patricia Mechael #  1 , Nadi Nina Kaonga #  2   3 , Subhashini Chandrasekharan #  2 , Muthu Perumal Prakash  4 , Joanne Peter  5 , Aakash Ganju #  6 , Nirmala Murthy #  7
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

The Elusive Path Toward Measuring Health Outcomes: Lessons Learned From a Pseudo-Randomized Controlled Trial of a Large-Scale Mobile Health Initiative

Patricia Mechael et al. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. .

Abstract

Mobile health (mHealth) offers new opportunities to improve access to health services and health information. It also presents new challenges in evaluating its impact, particularly in linking the use of a technology intervention that aims to improve health behaviors with the health outcomes that are impacted by changed behaviors. The availability of data from a multitude of sources (paper-based and electronic) provides the conditions to facilitate making stronger connections between self-reported data and clinical outcomes. This commentary shares lessons and important considerations based on the experience of applying new research frameworks and incorporating maternal and child health records data into a pseudo-randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of mMitra, a stage-based voice messaging program to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes in urban slums in India.

Keywords: India; child health; mHealth; maternal health; research.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: JP is an employee of Johnson & Johnson, one of the funders of mMitra. No other competing interests are declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action theory of change and priority outcomes. ARV: antiretroviral; HIV: human immunodeficiency virus; MNC: maternal, newborn, and child; MNCH: maternal, newborn, and child health; PMTCT: prevention of mother to child transmission (of HIV); SMS: short message service.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pathway to change for hemoglobin levels in mMitra. ANC: antenatal care; Hb: hemoglobin; HH: household; KABP: knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and practices; MNC: maternal, newborn, and child.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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